Adam Lobon's blog

Inner Revolution - New Inspiring E-book

INNER REVOLUTION - NEW INSPIRING E-BOOK IS NOW AVAILABLE

The spirit of revolution is strong - why not turn the revolution inwards towards the negativity within our minds.  The negativity that lurks within us is what is responsible for all the issues we experience.  All the problems that we see in the world can be traced back to anger, desire and confusion.  Arising out of these emotions we see war, environmental issues, poverty and so forth.

It is oh so easy to spend energy in pointing ones finger to the world outside and proclaiming this must change or this person should alter their behavior - although the blaming process is easy the results from this approach are limited.  It is far more constructive to look within ones own mind and to create change.  Some meditators each year celebrate a “change your mind day.”  
Why not have this everyday?!

To revolt against the negativity within, that disturbs our mind.  The practice of Meditation helps us to discover in a constructive manner what is taking place in our mind - what is at the root of our problems and to gently and peacefully take this out.

The articles shared in this e-book illuminate how it is possible to take a meditative perspective...it always is.  The more we do the more peaceful and happy we will be.  We can then share this experience with all those around us.

Some people may say “oh its just theory” - well it is if you don’t practice it!  Some may “its not practical”, well it is if you don’t practice........  

Access your e-book here; donations are being accepted for Oxfam

Meditation & Retreat in Hydra

Hydra Island positioned around 2hrs from Athens by Flying Dolphin is a perfect location for meditation retreat.

It is clean and pure - free from any kind of machinery - yet has the best internet connection in Greece!

Mind Space will be running meditation retreats from here in the future. 

If we establish a strong daily meditation practice then we have an oasis of peace during our busy life. However from time to time it is good to take some time out for meditation retreat.  

Where we can recharge our mind and take a long deep breath - put our life in perspective and create mind space.

Upon return from retreat we have a powerful resource of peace we can call upon -  we have more space and clarity within us to solve the issues of daily life..

Stay tuned for info on retreats......

 

BLUE SKY MIND

When we sit down to meditate and observe the activity within our consciousness it is useful to have analogy that can help us understand what is taking place.   In this instance a blue sky

The mind is a formless phenomena, which at first makes it difficult to grasp - and for some impossible to believe in. How can we believe in something that cannot be seen through the evidence of the senses? 

During our daily life we are continuously believing in things that we cannot see - tomorrow for example....

Although we cannot experience the mind with our senses, we are experiencing the mind every moment, even during sleep. 

The mind can often feel cloudy.  The clouds that we experience obscure the blue sky mind that we have.

In the same way that the blue of the sky is vast and without boundary so is our mind.  Just as clouds obscure the blue sky, so our thoughts can obscure the peace that we have in our mind.

Our mind has incredible potential - this potential doesn't have to be pumped into it artificially - aggressive growth.  It is waiting to be discovered in gentle, concentrated meditation. 

Meditation practice is like a voyage of discovery, if we are well motivated and focused we can voyage beyond the clouds of obstructing thoughts and conceptions and enjoy the vastness of our blue sky mind.  

An extensive description of this meditation can be found in the book Gentle Empathy.  You can sample and download the meditation on iTunes here. The meditation also appears on the CD 'Had a Stressful Day...create mind space'  which you can purchase in the US and UK here.

HAPPINESS AND VIRTUE

The endless pursuit of happiness can fill nearly all our mental space - which is often why there feels very little space within the mind.  One of the most powerful methods to create Mind Space is to discover the direct source of happiness.  When our mind is full of virtue then naturally we experience peace and happiness - a deep and long lasting experience arises naturally out of this experience.

Aristotle a famous Greek philosopher proclaimed in one of his ancient books Ethics:

“Happiness arises from the flourishing of virtue in the soul.”

When I first read these words they left a dramatic effect on my mind.  It was pointing the direction to a new experience.  To look within for happiness through the cultivation of virtue - when the mind is mixed with virtue, we are happy.  When there is an absence of virtue then our experience of happiness is limited. Material acquisitions can only provide a certain amount of satisfaction before we are left seeking more...and more.

Meditation practice helps to cultivate virtue within - we become familiar with thinking in a positive way towards the people around us, trying to focus on their good qualities as opposed to their faults.  This mind training can be cultivated within the quiet of meditation and then integrated into our life. More about this technique can be discovered in the book “Loving Kindness”.


In the film “Jean De Fleurette” a family arrive at a village in preparation for a new start in their life - they acquire some fertile land, rich for growing abundant harvests throughout the year.  However the tragedy was they were unable to find a source of water to feed the land.  They had to travel miles and miles each day for a small amount of water. Eventually this toll led to the break up of the family and the death of the father (due to his struggle).  The neighbors throughout the ordeal were fully aware of the source of the water but kept it secret.  If the family had known of the source they would have been able to have a rich and abundant life - alas this was not to be the case.

If we are aware of the direct source of happiness then similarly we find a spring within the centre of our life that gives rise to a continuous flow of well being and contentment.  All that is required is a simple understanding of the mechanics of our mind and how to cultivate virtue within meditation.  We don’t need to sign any special contract or wear any notable outfit.

Virtue is the source of happiness which we can cultivate within our mind and then integrate into our life. Meditation practice assists and nourishes this development.

Love is in the air?

Happy Valentines Day - a tradition for centuries where lovers share their affection and thoughts together. One person said to me the other day "I hate Valentines Day" - haha yes well a day is what you make of it. The day in itself is open to interpretation.  So on this day I wanted to talk about equality and love.

Most of the problems and difficulties that we experience in human relationships come from issues that we have with equality.  All wars stem from a mind that is imbalanced, close to some and distant to others.  Based upon this we draw some close, push others away and extend an indifference to those who don't fall into those categories.

This happens in families, streets, within religions, between sport supporters.  It occurs between different race, creed, colors.  Division is a very powerful tool for disharmony, as we can see within the problems of our society.  Often we look to others to solve the problem, to change their behavior to create new rules to solve these issues within our society.

A meditator takes a different approach - the approach is to lead from the front and to show by example.  We can change the world that we live in by beginning to change our mind. 

Do we have inequality within our mind?
Is our mind uneven and unbalanced?

We can check quietly in meditation - unless we have trained our mind of course it is inevitable that our mind is imbalanced.  We can make a difference by balancing and equalizing our mind and thoughts towards others.   Simply through making a firm decision within our consciousness we can move forward spiritually.
Love and affection can be shared with many people - we can start with those who are closest to us and extend this experience out towards others - those we see on the street, around the town, on the television, those we think about.  We can make a start in sharing our love with more and more people.

To do this successfully and continuously first of all we have to address our own mind honestly. Discovering what states of mind we have in there that prevent this development. Nobody has the power or ability to stop us from loving them - we make that decision.

Meditation, Addiction and Transcending

This a brief article touches upon addiction and how meditation can help to reduce and conquer addictive tendencies.

We can see that throughout history within art and literature there have been great talents emerging often they have been addicted to some kind of intoxicating substance - there skills attributed to the use of the substance.

 

Take Dylan Thomas for example!  He produced some of the finest works of literature during the twentieth century and was in a state of almost continuos intoxication - was this one of the key reasons for the quality of his work?

When we become intoxicated by a substance such as alcohol we can feel as though we have temporarily transcended  the issues of our life - it takes us temporarily into a different world - perhaps dissatisfied with the state of our existence we look for a way to overcome, or at least take the edges off the problems in our life. 

This state can then enhance our creativity - there is a type of meditation called TM - transcendental meditation, which is very popular in schools within the USA due to the hard work and dedication of David Lynch.

Meditation practice can definitely help us to transcend the stresses of daily life.  Not only that but also enhance our creativity.  However it needs to be practiced regularly and consistently to have an effect on our life.  Its results are not necessarily as immediate as a stiff gin!  However if entered into sincerely the results can be much more profound and creative.

Our mind is a very powerful tool - if we treat it kindly and develop it, we can transcend the entangling issues of daily life and strengthen the creativity within.

Time passes...time passes - a reflection

In Under Milk Wood the narrator states:
“If you listen carefully time passes, time passes”. 
Can we listen carefully?
“Yes, yes of course I can!” - really? -
So what do you hear?

Often we hear what we want to hear - the way we want to hear it.  Our mind filters information through its chosen screens.  Meditation helps us to listen to our thoughts,  we discover that they are transparent in nature - we see beyond them...
 

This will be discussed in the article entitled “waves” below.  A good listener needs to be objective - the more we listen then the less facts we find.  The play mentioned above ‘Under Milk Wood’ is a  radio play documenting 24hrs in the life of a sleepy village in Wales, life moves on and as it does - time follows. 

We can miss that - this is why I think this line of the play takes us to a different place, as the Narrator taps deeper into the reality of the day - you have the comings and goings, the gossip - the worries and the dramas of life.  However there is more if you go deeper.

Meditation practice - can take us deeper into the fabric of our existence. Aiding awareness and fueling our ability to see and think deeper - to tap into time, to scratch beneath the surface.  Some people think drugs do it - but these substances take you out.  Meditation takes you in, so you can then see further out.

Meditation, Napoleon and Thrones!

"A throne is only a bench covered in velvet"  - is the message sent out to the good people of London city as they journey through the tubes.

Within our life we come across many facades - but the curious mind is interested in what lies behind.  With more busyness it is not as easy to look deeper.  Meditation practice helps us to look, see and think deeper.

To scratch beneath the surface of our existence - to not take things on face value - a throne is a powerful object - but is nothing other then a fancy box. The person who has ascended to a throne will one day descend. When we say a person has power, we simply give that person power through our thoughts and projections. 

As Dylan wrote "even the President of the United State must sometimes have to stand naked".

One time a close friend of mine who was having a breakdown shared that their whole life had been built on a foundation of sand - it was a stunningly honest and acute perception.  The sand was the materialistic props - which he realized had no power to deliver stability or happiness.
The velvet thrones in our life can appear real and true - we just have to take off the cover and view beneath.

Meditation practice helps to sharpen our eye to the world around us - to see and view deeper than the surface.

More to life than speed - meditation & letters

Poignantly placed, on curved walls all across the London tube, is this message by Gandhi:

"There is more to life than increasing its speed."

As the onlooker  rushes onto the next, the next and then the next...

Recently I met a Londoner who had moved to the Black Country (for love).   She told me she was getting used to people saying "hello" to her in the street.

Speed is an illusive and deceptive phenomena, it seems that the quicker we can produce, communicate, create, react, respond, the better - first passed the post wins?

"I don't have the time, I am too busy".   The quicker the technology we have at our fingertips can create something, the busier we feel.  Busy is a state of mind and so is time - (another post) -

Our ability to communicate has dramatically sped up - the thought of sending or receiving a hand written letter is distant - a disappearing art, yet to scribe a letter and to send requires a greater thought and intention than to quickly send an e-mail.  Has e-mail and the internet improved the quality of our life? Probably not.  Its a medium we can use and master rather than it mastering us.  It is very easy to hide lazily behind an e-mail - than it is to hide behind a paper and pen.

My late Uncle was the last of my circle who sent letters - it was a pleasure to have known him and to receive them.  

Meditation tinkers with the internal workings of our reality and aides us into realizing that time and speed is just a concept - we can create time for something if we develop the aspiration and wish to engage in that activity....

Try meditating, try writing a letter - if you have the time.....